For all Festen fans

Cafe Society
1

You know, that brilliant Danish Dogme 95 movie, winner of the 1998 Cannes Jury Prize? (“The Celebration” in English)

Loved it to death when I saw it a few years back. I always wondered about its origins. Tonight, browsing the IMDB.com boards, I happened upon a link. A story out of a Danish newspaper, translated into English by one of the IMDB posters.

Here it is.

The English isn’t the best in the world, but it’s fairly easy to read. What a story! From fiction, to fact, to fiction.

Absolutely surreal. Somehow, it enhances a film I already adored, and I just thought I’d share.

2

Thanks, Coldfire, for this article. Very interesting.

Festen is the one foreign-language film I always encourage people to see. (It just so happens that I mentioned it today, on another board.)

3

No problem, Duke. It would appear the film is even more obscure than I thought, as we seem to be the only to fans here on the SDMB. :slight_smile:

(Well, I’m assuming our token Dane Spiny Norman at least knows the film!)

For those who don’t know it: try and locate a copy of “The Celebration” at your video rental store, and give it a try. A film doesn’t win the Cannes jruy prize for nothing.

4

I thought it was a brilliant, harrowing film. The self-imposed limitations of Dogme 95 helped, in my opinion, to make it the movie it is.

5

I loved it. After the total dreck that was The Idiots, I thought I’d never like a Dogme 95 film. But Festen was brilliant.

No time to read the story now, though. Shame.

6

I fifth that.

By far the best of the dogme films. That story has made the rounds in Denmark and IMO just goes to prove that sometimes fiction really is stranger.